1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to shock absorbing holders and information processors having shock absorbing holders, and more specifically to a shock absorbing holder for holding a device vulnerable to shock such as a hard disk drive to protect the device against shock and securely storing the device after it has been removed from an information processor, and an information processor equipped with a device held by the shock absorbing holder.
2. Description of the Background Art
In recent years, the weight, size and thickness of information processors such as notebook computers have been reduced, improving their portability to allow outside use and the like. In such a portable information processor, a hard disk drive is used as a storage device for storing information. There are growing numbers of occasions of attaching/detaching this storage device to/from the information processor as required in order to expand its storage capacity or secure stored information. Further, the removed storage device is carried or stored alone.
As a result, when the information processor is carried, the storage device held in the information processor is damaged by shock and vibration given through the information processor. Further, when the storage device is carried alone, unlike when carried using the information processor, shock and vibration are directly imported to the storage device, resulting in more damage to the storage device. Even the storage device being stored may suffer damage by unexpected shock and vibration under certain circumstances in the storage place.
To avoid these situations, various schemes have been devised to suppress shock and vibration to the storage device and prevent damage to the storage device regardless of whether the storage device is held in the information processor or not.
Described below is a conventional shock absorbing holder and an information processor using the shock absorbing holder referring to FIGS. 23, 24 and 25.
FIG. 23 shows an information processor with a storage device held by a conventional shock absorbing holder embedded. For visibility, FIG. 23 shows a state in which an open/close lid L of a storage device storing portion 1c of an information processor DPp is open. In the information processor DPp, a keyboard 4 is arranged on an approximately upper-half portion of a case 1, and the storage portion 1c for components such as a storage device required to be attached/detached is provided on a lower-half portion thereof. Stored in the storage portion 1c are a main circuit board 2 and a storage device unit SU in which a hard disk drive is held by a shock absorbing holder. The storage device unit SU is connected to the main circuit board 2 by a signal cable 6. The open/close lid L is mounted on the upper surface of the storage portion 1c. Further, a display portion 5 is reclosably mounted on the upper end portion of the case 1.
FIG. 24 shows the structure of the storage device unit SU. The storage device unit SU is composed of a hard disk drive 3, a shock absorbing holder 51 and a cover 52. The shock absorbing holder 51 is molded of material with low hardness and repulsion, in a box container shape having a concave portion 51c in a shape according to the shape of the hard disk drive 3. The cover 52 is flatly molded of the same material as that of the shock absorbing holder 51.
The storage device unit SU is structured so as to accommodate the hard disk drive 3 in the concave portion 51c of the shock absorbing holder 51 and fit the cover 52 into the concave portion 51 to hold down the hard disk drive 3. Part of the signal cable 6 of the hard disk drive 3 is kept extended outside of the storage device unit SU between the shock absorbing holder 51 and the cover 52 so as to connect to the main circuit board 2, as described above.
FIG. 25 shows a state of the storage device unit SU when the information processor DPp receives shock from its side surface. When shock is imported from an arrow Fa direction to the case 1 of the information processor DPp, a force to move in a Fr direction opposed to the Fa direction occurs in the hard disk drive 3. However, the shock absorbing holder 51 and the cover 52 are made of material with low hardness and low repulsion, and therefore, as the hard disk drive 3 moves in the Fr direction, portions adjacent to the hard disk drive 3 in the shock absorbing holder 51 become deformed to absorb the shock on the hard disk drive 3. Such deformation prevents damage to the hard disk drive 3 by shock.
When the hard disk drive 3 is removed from the case 1 and carried or stored for capacity expansion and security, the hard disk drive 3 is not handled as the storage device unit SU, but is removed from the shock absorbing holder 51 and the cover 52 and handled alone.
As described above, gel material with low hardness and low repulsion is conventionally adopted for the shock absorbing holder 51 in order to improve a shock absorbing effect in the information processor. However, due to gel material's low hardness and repulsion, the shock absorbing holder 51 molded in a box container shape does not have a freestanding characteristic. That is, the shock absorbing holder 51 cannot keep its box shape without some other supporting means. Therefore, when the shock absorbing holder 51 is set in the storage portion 1c of the case 1 before the hard disk drive 3 is embedded in the case 1, the shock absorbing holder 51 loses its shape.
With the shock absorbing holder 51 having no freestanding characteristic and losing its shape, it is very difficult to assemble the storage device unit SU. Since the shock absorbing holder 51 changes its shape during assembly of the storage device unit SU, stable shock absorbing capability and holding capability cannot be ensured even when the storage device unit SU was managed to be assembled.
To cope with these problems, the following three methods have been conventionally used. A first method increases the hardness of the material of the shock absorbing holder 51 to prevent it from losing its shape. A second method increases the wall thickness of the material of the shock absorbing holder 51 more than required to ensure a freestanding characteristic. A third method makes the size of the concave portion 51c of the shock absorbing holder 51 larger than the size of the hard disk drive 3 so that the shock absorbing holder 51 can accommodate the hard disk drive 3 even after losing its shape.
However, as in the first and third methods, with the hardness of the material of the shock absorbing holder 51 increased and with the size of the concave portion 51c made next larger than that of the hard disk drive 3, the shock absorbing holder 51 cannot sufficiently receive the hard disk drive 3 when the case 1 receives shock and cannot protect the hard disk drive 3 enough against the shock. Also in the second method, increasing the wall thickness of the shock absorbing holder 51 more than required is against the requirement of reduction in weight, size and thickness of the information processor, as described later.
When the shock absorbing holder 51 is made of gel material with high shock absorbing capability, the following problem may further occur. That is, since gel material has high viscosity, the shock absorbing holder 51 intimately contacts with the case 1, which makes it difficult to attach/detach the storage device unit SU to/from the case 1. Due to low thermal conductivity, it is difficult for gel material to dissipate heat from the hard disk drive 3. As a result, overheating of the held hard disk drive 3 is likely to occur.
Furthermore, in recent years, the size and thickness of information processors has been reduced for improving portability. Therefore, the thickness of the shock absorbing holder has to be reduced. A hard disk drive is also reduced in thickness and structured in a flat shape, so to speak. Described below is a case in which the storage device unit SU accommodating the flatly-shaped hard disk drive 3 in the thin-shaped shock absorbing holder 51 receives shock on a side surface 3a of the hard disk drive 3 from the Fa direction, referring to FIG. 25.
Shock force centers on a narrow area of the side surface 3a of the thin-shaped hard disk drive 3. The shock absorbing holder 51 has to absorb the shock forcing the hard disk drive 3 in the Fr direction into the very narrow side surface 3a of the hard disk drive 3. Therefore, in the thin-shaped hard disk drive 3, even though shock force per unit area of the side surface 3a is several times that of a storage device unit SU equipped with a not-thin-shaped hard disk drive 3, the volume of the shock absorbing holder 51 capable of absorbing shock force is a fraction of that of the latter. As a result, the hard disk drive 3 digs into the shock absorbing holder 51, thereby reducing the shock absorbing effect of the shock absorbing holder 51.
Further, when material having a property of low hardness and a low repulsion coefficient such as gel material is used for the shock absorbing holder 51 and its walls are thin, in the worst case, the shock absorbing holder 51 cannot absorb shock by the movement of the hard disk drive 3, causing the side surface 3a of the hard disk drive 3 to bump against the case 1 and other components over the shock absorbing holder 51. In this case, it is needless to say that the hard disk drive 3 suffers serious damage.
On the other hand, when shock force parallel to the bottom surface of the storage unit SU, that is, the shock force perpendicular to the bottom surface of the concave portion 51c or the top or bottom surface of the cover 52 acts on the center portion of the bottom surface of the concave portion 51c, the shock force is equally received in the entire large area of the bottom surfaces of the concave portion 51c or the cover 52. As a result, the shock force is absorbed by the large volume of the shock absorbing holder 51 and the hard disk drive 3 does not suffer damage, unlike in the above case.
However, shock force not parallel to the bottom surface of the storage unit SU, that is, the shock force in a diagonal direction to the bottom surface of the concave portion 51c or the bottom surface of the cover 52 acts particularly on a part in the vicinity of the end portion of the bottom surface of the concave portion 51c, the hard disk drive 3 is exerted to move toward a diagonal direction Fs to the bottom surface of the concave portion 51c or the side wall of the case 1. In this case, the shock force centers on an edge portion C much narrower than the side surface 3a of the hard disk drive 3. As a result, the edge portion C of the hard disk drive 3 easily digs into the shock absorbing holder 51 to bump against the case 1. Further, in the worst case, the edge portion C of the hard disk drive 3 destroys the shock absorbing holder 51 and further directly bumps against the case 1 to cause serious damage to the hard disk drive 3 itself.
In this way, when material having low hardness and a repulsion coefficient is used to obtain a high shock absorbing effect, assembling convenience, downsizing and heat dissipation of the information processor are extremely inhibited. Further, when the hard disk drive 3 is removed from the information processor DPp and stored alone in view of maintenance and security, the hard disk drive 3 having the conventional structure is once removed from the shock absorbing holder to be in an unsecured state. Therefore, there have been growing numbers of occasions when, in such an unsecured state, the hard disk drive 3 receives unprepared shock due to falling, etc., to suffer damage.
Further, when the hard disk drive 3 is removed to be handled alone, there exist problems such as the inconvenience of handling the signal cable 6 extending from the hard disk drive and the possibility of a break, etc., and therefore the handling of the hard disk drive 3 requires extra caution. Moreover, when the hard disk drive 3 is embedded again in the information processor DPp, assembling the storage unit SU is difficult.